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41 Hilarious And Bizarre Instances Of Culture Shock That Had Foreigners Gasping Out Loud
In his satirical novella "The Innocents Abroad," Mark Twain pokes fun at the culture shock of Americans aboard a ship cruising around Europe. Literally every day, in a new country, in a new port, the passengers encountered something unexpected, something they themselves considered simply strange.
Indeed, even today, when the world has become so small thanks to the airlines, and the internet lets us learn everything we want to about other countries, tourists still encounter foreign traditions and are surprised by how different people live on the other side of the world. Here's a new collection of such stories, made by Bored Panda.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Just last year, my husband I took our grandmas (all from the US) to Europe. My husband, my grandma and myself were in a church in Germany and they were doing some construction. Someone dropped something that made a loud bang and the 3 of us pretty much hit the deck. When we sat up, we realized not a single other soul had even moved or were concerned about the bang. Took me a while to get over that one.
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#3
In The Netherlands, during a phone call, you wrap up the conversation step by step by saying something like “thank you” or “take care,” followed by a “bye” from both sides, and then you hang up.
When I got to know a French individual, I was shocked by our first phone conversation, he would say “bye” out of nowhere without any proper wrapping up and even hang up before I could respond to his "bye".
I was literally shocked and found it disrespectful, looking back now I understand it was a cultural difference.
Just a few centuries ago, the average person's life was limited to their hometown, and many people might travel only a few dozen miles from home in their entire lives. News was also scarce - the only thing one could count on were the stories of rare travelers.
So it's no surprise that many people lived their entire lives believing that everyone else in the world lived the same way, with the same traditions and rules. However, in recent decades, everything has undergone big changes. Someone can be born in Asia, study in Europe, and then come to live and work in America - and there are countless examples of this.
Consequently, people inevitably encounter foreign cultural traditions, and yes, some of these habits and customs can actually be downright baffling for them.
#4
I don't know if this counts. But, going to countries with completely different languages and suddenly being illiterate.
English, Spanish, French, ok.
But Polish or Chinese or Japanese? I literally cannot parse anything.
It is humbling.
Rick Murray 28 minutes ago
English, Spanish, and French have a fair amount of commonality. We can thank the Normans for the amount of French stuff lurking in English, and the letters used are similar, as are frequently (or enough to try to understand) the sounds the letters make.
#5
I’m Canadian and pretty open about the fact that I don’t want children whenever topics related to kids come up. I had a lot of Indian coworkers at the call centre I used to work at, and quite a few of them seemed to find that a lot more shocking, strange, and even upsetting than anyone local I’ve ever mentioned it to.
I’m a man btw, I feel like that’s relevant here and I’m guessing they’d probably consider it even more shocking and whatnot if a woman said she didn’t want kids.
#6
Food portions in the US are huge - I order kids meals because I dont want to waste good food and dont want to carry a doggy bag when running around NY 😶
Edit: Dutch Caribbean btw.
Petra Peitsch 31 minutes ago
I'm a chef, whenever I hear some customers whining about "small food portions", they are 100% US-americans. Not bashing, just a fact.
A classic example is the tradition of kissing upon greeting. In many European countries, for example, France, Italy, Spain, and in Latin America, even people who barely know each other may kiss on the cheek upon meeting. Moreover, in France, for example, there may be several such kisses, depending on the region you're in.
For example, in Paris and the surrounding area, the "standard" is two kisses, and in Montpellier, three kisses, while in some regions of northern France, people even kiss four times. Now imagine what a culture shock this tradition is for, say, the Japanese, Chinese, or Scandinavians, where such a kiss in public can be considered simply provocative or even offensive!
#7
I visited Dubai 14 years ago with my sister. We had family living there and they invited us to come stay. We were both young and hadn’t really travelled much so figured, why not? We had done our research re what to wear, the laws and social rules etc. but no one prepared us/told us about the prayer calls. Woke up the first night at like 3am or something to loud broadcasted chants/prayers. We had NO idea what was going on lol.
#8
I've lived in Japan my entire adult life, nearly 34 years. The biggest culture shock for me was going back to the US for business trips to some cities where gas stations and convenience stores had bars on the windows, thick bulletproof Lexan encasing the register counters, and you had to interact with the cashier through essentially a hand-sized airlock. One wonders what kind of war zone hail of bullets had to transpire to result in having to enter a literal fortress just to get a bag of Doritos and $20 unleaded on pump 4.
Rick Murray 25 minutes ago
That's just where paranoia/distrust and the second amendment crash into each other.
#9
Honestly some of the biggest culture shocks I experience as an American these days is being shown just *how different* I am from my fellow countrymen. I can't believe the level of depravity people have let themselves sink to. Life long relationships and respect completely shattered for essentially nothing.
By the way, the modern world is also developing its own traditions in different countries. For example, regarding the use of headphones in public places and on public transport. Yes, this, too, is not a universal custom.
And while, say, in Korea or Japan, anyone listening to music or watching YouTube on a smartphone on the subway is nearly required to wear headphones, in some Eastern European countries, you'll be greeted by a cacophony of sounds from various smartphones at varying volumes.
At the same time, God forbid you ever reprimand someone in another country - even if you're sure they're breaking the "generally accepted" rules of conduct! Our world is still an incredible melting pot of different cultures, and there aren't really that many universal, global rules.
#10
How many people there are in India.
tw 72 54 minutes ago (edited)
Population US: 342.4 MILLION /// Population India: between 1.45 to 1.47 BILLION /// Just for reference: A simple way to illustrate the difference between a million and billion is through time: •One Million seconds is about 11.5 DAYS •One Billion seconds is about 31.7 YEARS
#11
Lived in Rwanda.
- Privacy in your family isn't really a thing, the culture is more collectively minded. Like you don't have your own stuff in the same way. Homestay families will see a snack in "your room" (considered a strange American thing to want a room with your own door) and eat it because its sort of assumed everything is meant to be shared, especially food.
- Similarly you do NOT eat in public, like outside of an explicit restaurant. That's super rude, food is meant to be shared, so if you pull out food and hoard it that's a social mistake.
- People aren't really stressed about time or being out of control all the time. Trying to make it somewhere? Well, hope the bus comes, there's no way to know if it will. Want to eat? Okay, you're eating that day's buffet lunch at the place next to your work. Living there forced me to let go of a ton of anxiety I had that I didn't even know I had. You just... need to adapt and go with the flow, and everyone else understands that. Being late isn't really a big deal because life is unpredictable.
- You do not challenge authority. I went to the doctor and the healthcare workers were shocked when I started asking questions. The responses are like, "What do you mean you have a question or concern about the medicine? The doctor prescribed you the medicine, so you take it." Like, the conversation sort-of ends there.
- Rwanda is a... "democracy" (HEAVY QUOTES... because uh... it isn't really...). You don't really have free speech. The first time I left the country I felt like I could finally breathe. I could finally criticize the president. Sometimes if politics came up with people, I'd get the response: "Politics? Why are you asking me that? I'm not a politician, so I wouldn't know anything about that?".
#12
Had what was a reverse culture shock visiting Japan last year. In the first half of the trip we were in the major cities; Kyoto, Osaka Tokyo. I speak almost no Japanese. Thankfully most of the service workers in the cities spoke enough english to get by, but I would occasionally have to use Google translate.
In the second leg of the trip we went to go ski. We were in a very small Japanese town, far away from any of the major cities. When we arrived, we first went to a restaurant, preparing for the communication to be pretty difficult.
Walked in to be greeted by a blonde haired, blue eyed teenager who spoke perfect English. Looking around the room there was not a single Japanese person. It turns out, Aussies have taken over the Japanese ski towns to the point where they seemingly outnumber Japanese people.
Incidentally, the cross-cultural interactions also leave their mark on centuries-old traditions. For example, Europeans and Americans, when dining in China or Southeast Asian countries, were often surprised that burping after a meal wasn't considered a flagrant breach of etiquette, as is customary in Western culture, but rather a sign of respect for the host and gratitude for a hearty meal.
However, today, many guidebooks and travel bloggers are increasingly noting that in large Chinese cities, young people and businesspeople are increasingly adopting Western interpretations, so that in a fashionable restaurant in Beijing or Shanghai, loud burping at the table may only elicit dirty looks.
The world is changing, and different cultures and traditions intersect and sometimes mutually enrich each other. Well, this makes traveling to some distant place on our planet all the more wonderful. It's an opportunity to see and learn something new.
#13
The houses that we visited in Guatemala. These wonderful sweet shy Mayans were living in small homes constructed from pieces of tin and cardboard, cornstalks held together with wire/twine, some cement blocks. They used a metal barrel for a stove. It sure opened my eyes to what real poverty is; I grew up in a lower middle class family and had garage sale clothes. Big whoop. They worked hard to earn enough to stay alive.
#14
As a Canadian I was blown away being in an American home where everyone kept their shoes on.
They were walking all over the very nice carpet in the same shoes that they wore all day outside and stepped in God knows what!
#15
I did a study abroad in the Netherlands. I was shocked by Dutch hospitality (or lack thereof)! Coming from the Middle East food is our love language. Eating without offering food to your guest, or shooing them before dinner, would honestly cause you to be totally shunned.
We're pretty sure that if you've traveled a lot or interacted with people from different cultures, you've also encountered something in their behavior or habits that seemed strange or even confusing to you. Meanwhile, it's quite possible that our customs also seem strange to some, right?
So we'd love to hear from you about any examples of "culture shock" you've encountered in your life. Please feel free to share your stories in the comments below.
#16
A little over a year ago, I was visiting my younger sister. She pulled out her vape. I sort of knew about vaping, at least I thought I did.
But this thing had full color animated LED graphics on the side and a USB-C charging port. She was like, yeah, it's disposable.
Now I see those things everywhere. YOU THROW THEM AWAY?? Something like that little blueberry flavored gadget would have been hundreds of dollars when I was a teenager and the iPod had just come out - with a black and white screen.
I still can't get over it.
Rick Murray 18 minutes ago
I keep begging for people to throw them in my direction so I can strip them down for parts. But, no, people think that's weird and toss them in the bin. Such waste.
#17
I taught in a rural Ghanaian village once for a bit. No power at night, soccer ball made out of duct tape, one place in town to get a warm beer and wild dance/drum parties at night. Coming back home to Edmonton messed with me for quite a while. Like, people have everything here (Alberta) and they’re still so miserable.
#18
When I went to Japan, I quickly noticed how much infrastructure there is for blind people to get around as pedestrians. the yellow pads on the ground that change patterns when you come to a street corner or a flight of stairs, and braille on stair railings. I'm a sighted person from the US, and I've felt kind of floored ever since about how much we don't have so much of that anywhere I've lived in this country. how hard could it be to add braille to public stair railings?
#19
Back in the early 1970s my family moved from the northeast to the deep south. My old school was 99% white, my new school was about 50-50. I had never met a black adult before, now several of my teachers were black. I was called yankee and told that the south was better than the north. First time I got breakfast at school they served some white slop that tasted like paste. I had never seen grits before. I gave it to some chubby red neck kid that thanked me multiple times. After that he always talked to me at breakfast to get the grits. Walking through the woods came across a gator that chased me. All of these was in a period of 3 or so months. I am still traumatized 55 years later.
#20
I once greeted someone with a kiss on the cheek like I usually do… they just froze. That’s when I realized not every culture does that.
#21
The silence on the trains in japan. coming from a city where people blast music or talk loudly on phones, it was almost eerie how you could hear a pin drop in a crowded subway car. actually felt peaceful after a while.
#22
I studied abroad in Morocco for 4 months in the early 2000s. When I returned to the USA I was overstimulated by all the ads and corporate logos everywhere. It really clutters up our world and we are inured to it.
#23
First time I sat in a coffee shop in SF and overheard two people casually talking about raising $4 million like they were deciding what to order for lunch. I grew up in a house where a $200 car repair was a full blown crisis. the wealth gap isn’t something you just read about here, you feel it walking down the street past a $5,000/month studio and a tent on the same block..
#24
Visiting Medellin in Colombia and driving through the streets. Mom, dad and kid all on one scooter with no helmets literally their lives in their hands every second.
#25
Americans don't put chicken Salt on their chips. Most of them don't even know what it is.
#26
Watching children in Mexico happily eating crickets like they were popcorn, also 4 or 5 year old kids staying out at 10pm selling gum.
#27
I'm Canadian and getting a hospital bill is crazy.
#28
When I was in Korea. No one holds the door for anyone behind them. If you bump into each other by accident you don't say excuse me or sorry. You just keep going on your merry way.
#29
Lizards. Someplaces just have lizards scurrying around outside.
There'a only six lizards native to Canada and only one native to my province and i don't live in range of it.
Anywhere i go that just has lizards i'm always like wow! A lizard! And the locals usually treat it like getting excited at seeing a rat.
Yes, i know we have bears and wolves and moose and such in Canada and that's exciting if you can see them safely but also surprising! A lizard! Look at it doing a little push up!!!! .
Rick Murray 23 minutes ago
Never saw lizards in the south of England. Here in France the walls crawl with them. Odd little critters. Every so often there's a huge dark green thing with splashes of yellow. Some sort of gecko? It doesn't hang around long enough for me to get a good look.
#30
Landing in Singapore. Armed guards at the airline gates. Chewing gum in public $150 fine. Leave a public toilet without flushing, $250 fine. They pressure wash the streets and sidewalks at night.
#31
I (American gay dude) was strolling around Dhaka and saw someone flying an ISIS flag from their balcony.
#32
Paying to use the bathrooms in European countries. Sometimes I had to pay and the bathroom wasn't even clean! It is nice to get a coupon voucher at the gas stations though.
#33
I am white, in Canada, and work with an office 95% desi.
The biggest culture shock is their work culture. Super top down and often nonsensical (ie people will keep doing the wrong thing until the owner tells them not to, but would never on their own or with others). A lot of gossip backstabbing (at least at thr office counterpart overseas). A lot of blaming. People are either ultra super efficient or impossible to get ahold of. Nothing in between.
I just act like I normally would in an office. I worked with a guy from Sri Lanka who was like, ' what is this place' lol. For Christmas they left a package of dollarama cookies on a table and a bunch of coworkers gave sincere thanks to the owner which I also found amusing.
Rick Murray 19 minutes ago
People aren't paid to think, they're paid to follow instructions. To a degree we do that a little too because you can't get in trouble for following the procedure, but you can get in trouble for making your own decisions. Just let things fall off a cliff and point out the procedure is wrong and wait for it to be changed, and then demand compliance training. It's a stupid way to do anything, but I guess we can thank lawyers and blame culture for this.
#34
Moving from mostly homogeneous midwestern WASP-filled Missouri to Boston in 1982, and discovering that people there identified themselves by what “old country” their relatives were from, and by what school they went to. It annoyed the hell out of people when they asked me, “what are you?” (Meaning, “I’m Greek/italian/Irish/Polish/whatever”), and I’d say, “I don’t know, and no one in our family cares. We’re Americans.”.
Michael Largey 17 minutes ago
The Midwest is hardly homogenous, and identity by ancestors' country of origin is quite common. Where I live there are any number of ethnic social organizations such as the Polish Falcons. Italian and Irish identities are also quite strong, as are the Belgians. Go to Chicago or Detroit, and you'll find even more countries represented.
#35
In Costa Rica I was behind a school bus with flashing lights. I stopped. Everybody behind me went around both me and the bus. The children were smart enough not to cross the road until clear.
Rick Murray 12 minutes ago
Yeah, apparently you CAN go around school buses (slowly) in France. It took a few people honking at me for me to figure that out. In the UK it just wasn't done (I think it may be illegal but I never drove in the UK). At any rate, one paid attention to the presence of children. Many French drivers...don't seem to pay attention to anything except themselves.
#36
Graduating from a small village in the midwest (~1600 people) and then going to bootcamp just north of Chicago. Met guys from NY, Kentucky, California, Texas, etc. Completely changed how I viewed the world.
#37
I struggle with "island time" these folks ain't in any hurry to do anything ever. As an American it's infuriating and humbling at the same time.
Rick Murray 10 minutes ago
Or French time where "fashionably late" is taken to its extremes. You want your friend to turn up for 5pm? Tell her to be there for four. And expect her to still be late. For a Brit where on time means on time, it's infuriating.
#38
I genuinely don't think I've ever seen security at a 24hr McDonald's outside of Belfast.
#39
Coming from down south in the US, baby showers were generally women only and held during the afternoon. As a teen I moved to a predominantly Hispanic / Caribbean area of NYC and was invited to a baby shower that was starting pretty late in the evening and was stunned to see it was full on JAM. Almost like a wedding reception; men & women of all ages, loud music via a dj, a ton of incredible food, an open bar etc. it was amazing! But it was a far cry from the women’s only afternoon tea version I was accustomed to 😂😂😂😂😂😂.
#40
Customer service as we know it in the States isn’t really a thing elsewhere. They don’t honor a mislabeled price or allow you to exchange a ticket you bought for the wrong date, etc.
#41
Trip to Egypt and see how people live in the Sahara desert. They were making pancakes on a fire and used camel turds for the fire
When offered pancakes I declined saying I wasn't hungry.
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